Funding shortfall hampers delivery of food aid in DPR of Korea, UN says

The United Nations today said the severe shortfall in funding for its humanitarian programme in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is forcing cuts in its deliveries of vital rations to millions of hungry people.

As of this week, only 23 per cent of the $221 million requested in the Consolidated Appeal for DPRK has been received, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The UN World Food Programme (WFP), which has only received $28.5 million of the $171 million it requires to carry out emergency feeding programmes in 2004, needs about 40,000 tons of food, worth $14.2 million, per month between now and December.

Over the past two months, more than 2 million people in the west benefiting from WFP aid, including young children and pregnant and nursing women, did not receive any cereal rations, while the average caloric intake among pregnant and nursing women was only 70 per cent of the recommended amount.

In the agriculture sector, many counties are performing poorly because of unfavourable rainfall patterns, while in other areas, heavy rains are causing crops to rot.

The situation will temporarily improve with an expected shipment in August of wheat from Russia.

Trevor Rowe, a spokesman for WFP, said the agency had hoped to feed 6.5 million people this year but because of the funding shortfall has had to cut back on its operations dramatically, reaching only 1.8 million of the most vulnerable women, children and the elderly.

“A huge segment of the most vulnerable has had to make do with the meagre distributions from the public distribution system, which accounts for only 50 per cent or less of their daily caloric intake,” he said. “Several million people are still in a very, very vulnerable situation.”